Marian Lane
Marian Lane is a long-standing resident of Swallow Hills and the owner of, arguably, the most important building of commerce in Swallow Hills - The Sampson Hotel. Being one of the oldest Human citizens in Swallow Hills, though not as old as Ghouls like Herman Long, Marian has become somewhat of an authority on Swallow Hills' economy, operating as perhaps the most respected and therefore listened to business owners in the post-war settlement with a strong affinity for that which is lady-like and proper; or at least, what comes close to it in the post-war world. Biography Born in Hub in 2223, when the California Republic was just setting its roots, Marian was raised as the daughter of a low-class farmhand family in the employ of one of the powerful Brahmin barons of the period. Marian, as a child, soon became bored of the long hours, somewhat disheartened by her father and mother's struggle and toil in the fields to for a meagre pittance, taking solace in stories and pictures of the old world quite common in New California. Despite this poverty, she received a decent education in the NCR's nascent but effective education system, learning to read and write at an intermediate level, until being withdrawn from the school system by her father to sustain the family following a severe decline in her mother's health. She was, for the rest of this time, home-schooled by her parents during her free time. She had become quite enamoured with the old pre-war fashion and home magazines her mother had gathered and would often spend whatever allowance her parents gave her on these admittedly frivolous magazines; new ones being printed in the NCR were far too expensive for a poor girl like her to afford, but what was available to her nevertheless enamoured her with beautiful, serene images of women and pristine homes she envied and sought to emulate. By the age of 17, with her mother deceased from illness and her father killed by an ornery Brahmin bull, Marian sought adventure. Selling her families' shack, she left the territories of the growing New California Republic to seek her fortune. The problem of this was that she soon lost nearly all of her caps on the road in California, with the loss of so many caps forcing her to take on the life of a scavenger less out of choice and more out of necessity. The once empowering and liberating feeling of being free to do as she pleased on the open road soon became a bitter past, with Lane forced to scour the ruins of old buildings and turn in salvage at meagre rates, similar to the original wages her mother and father struggled on; whilst the searches did find her the odd pretty old dress or magazine, such things were only a fleeting distraction from the grim present. Marian soon fell into the bartender business, prostitution being a career that she was determined to avoid, relying on a developing charismatic streak that gradually came into being over time with every minute, hour and day passing whilst she worked as a bartender, using a mixture of charm and no-nonsense sternness when the aforementioned charm failed to attend to her duties; her ability to swap between lady-like and demure to stern and foul-mouthed certainly had her standing out and while the former came off as quite stilted, the effort put into such a performance was at least appreciated by those discerning clientele from the more civilised areas of California, whilst her more common down-to-earth rough-and-tumble attitude and town appealed to the more common clientele who liked their women as tough as their Gecko steaks. After earning enough caps in one establishment, she would then leave and head to the next town, outpost or settlement and take up residence as a bartender, establishing herself as the most popular bartender in said location and making as many friends as she could, then gather a substantial amount of caps and leave for the next town. This formula worked, until 2256 where she came across the small but growing settlement of Swallow Hills. Originally following the same method she always had, she worked in one of the many old diners littering the little town and made a few influential friends, namely those who had the ear of certain prominent figures in the town. Herman Long was one of the people whom soon caught wind of her growing reputation as a reliable bartender, with Long approaching her when Lane was midway through her stay. Herman gave her an offer that Marian liked the sound of; purchase the old ruins of the then currently abandoned Sampson Hotel and have a run of the place, paying off any debt incurred by the original purchase in instalments. The old Ghoul's sales pitch worked, with Marian almost immediately quitting her job, gathering the modest sum of caps together and purchasing the old building. Restoration work at first proved costly, with rubble and utterly destroyed furnishings quickly removed and replaced or repaired. The old theatre was quickly turned into a bar and the rooms relatively cleaned out to be rented out. With this work complete, Marian officially opened the hotel. At first, business was slow and very little income was made, with the majority of income coming in going straight to paying off the instalments she owed to Long. However, with her popular charisma and reputation as a bar woman now well-known, the hotel earned a steady trade. The money owed to Long, and by default the town, was repaid, much to the old Ghoul's satisfaction, and the hotel not only drew the attention of traders and settlers, but of colourful travellers from all over California; the poetry-reading Super Mutant Simon being one the more surprising, and profitable, patrons. It got to the point where, by 2275, the middle-aged Marian began receiving payment to refer smaller businesses to patrons from said businesses to prevent a monopoly being created; she didn't want the hassle, they wanted to stay independent - it was a deal that worked out quite well for all involved. With the arrival of the Luminate Tribe in 2282, Marian's influence only grew as a result of her dealings with this tribe, hiring various members of the tribe as security for fellow businesses, staff members for her own operation at the Sampson Hotel and even, for the more physically endowed males and females of the tribe, whores for the more savvy customers with slightly different fetishes; Marian reconciled this contradiction of her more 'feminine' side with a need to keep her businesses as lucrative as possible. With Lane becoming one of the most influential people in Swallow Hills, an uneasy rivalry between Long and Lane formed, with the former propped up only by the old guard of the town rather than the dwindling popular support he enjoyed, courted largely by the amnesiac propagandist radio disk-jockey, Hinge, whom threw bitter insults at Lane over the airwaves, though he often ended up in the Sampson Hotel's bar drunkenly apologising to her late into the night. Lane's influence continues to grow, with a power struggle becoming an inevitability, all the while Lane schmoozes her wealthy customers and kicks the slummies out. A pretty good deal, in her own words. Personality An unabashedly and unashamedly open and talkative woman, Marian has made many a patron to her establishment feel both welcome and respected - provided their caps are worth the trouble. Though Lane has an affinity for the pre-war world's concepts of lady-like sense and fashion, guessing in glowing terms what life was like for 'ladies' in the pre-war years, she is by no means a soft-touch. Famous for her no-nonsense, sensible way of dealing with troublemakers, being both unafraid and able to pull a gun on particularly annoying or violent patrons, she has made a name for herself as one of the toughest people living in Swallow Hills, with people affectionately as the "Tough Old Bitch". Equipment *'Flower Dress: '''A once plain jacket that was embroidered by Marian with pieces of old curtain cloth, Marian has worn these rather frumpy rags from the Hub all the way to Swallow Hills, where she views it as a way of hearkening back to the pre-war days of America, often times wistfully talking about an idealised version of the country in her more animated drinking sessions. *'.32 Pistol: '''A .32 Pistol supposedly looted from a wrecked California Highway Patrol motorcade during her wandering days in the California wastes, Marian carries this small calibre pistol around at all times, considering it a suitable calibre weapon for general self-defense and a wiser, more compact alternative to the bulky 10mm N99 Pistol. Category:Characters Category:New California Republic